Featured image: Pink salmon at a hatchery pool in Canada. Credit: Juergen Freund/Nature Picture Library

Salmon raised in captivity and released into rivers bound for the North Pacific are breeding with wild salmon, raising concerns among scientists about the fishes’ future. A new study published this month on pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) in Alaska predicts that such interbreeding will increase the size of the species’ population but decrease its diversity. This could change mating behaviours in wild fish, making them less resilient to climate change and other disasters.